Field of Inventions
The field of this application and any resulting patent is recovery of hydrocarbons from shale.
Description of Related Art
Various methods and devices have been proposed and utilized to recover hydrocarbons, including the methods and devices disclosed in the references appearing on the face of this patent and of the earlier-issued patent upon which this patent claims priority. However, these methods and devices lack all the steps or features of the methods covered by the patent claims below. Furthermore, the methods covered by at least some of the claims of this issued patent solve many of the problems that prior art methods have failed to solve. Also, the methods covered by at least some of the claims of this patent have benefits that would be surprising and unexpected to a person of ordinary skill in the art based on the prior art existing at the time of invention.